Palestinian PM Denounces Israeli Demolition Order on Bedouin School

The Palestinian prime minister’s office on Wednesday condemned an Israeli demolition order on a primary school in the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in the Jerusalem area.

The Khan al-Ahmar school, which accommodates 160 students from five different Bedouin communities, is located in the sensitive E1 area northeast of Jerusalem and west of the illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in the occupied West Bank. It has been slated for destruction by Israeli authorities for a number of years.

Palestinian prime minister, Rami Hamdallah, reiterated his support for the Bedouin community saying, “Everyone is entitled to education; it is a fundamental human right. We stand with the community of Khan al Ahmar and we commend all those who are supporting it.”

Palestinian Minister of Education, Sabri Saidam, announced the start of the academic year two weeks early in order to defy Israel’s closure and demolition orders, the statement said.

According to the spokesperson for the Bedouin communities in the Jerusalem district, Eid Khamis Abu Daouk, the decision was made on the basis that the school was built in an “unsafe and unhealthy environment” and located in Area C – more than 60 percent of the occupied West Bank under full Israeli control.

Israeli-issued building permits are nearly impossible for Palestinians in the area to obtain.

The statement insisted that the closure and demolition of the school were part of a larger Israeli plan to forcibly transfer at least 2,800 Bedouins living in the Jerusalem area in order to expand surrounding Israeli settlements.

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